A year and a half after completing its recapitalization, Sterling Financial Corp. in Spokane, Wash., has been released from an enforcement order with the Federal Reserve Board.

FDIC objected to private equity deal involving Prosperity Bank Co. in St. Augustine, Fla., sources said. It had served as a model for a good bank/bad bank deal involving BankAtlantic that a judge recently blocked.

Two California banks have repaid funds they received from the Treasury Department under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

With at least one success, defendants are attempting to use state "business-judgment" rules to their advantage.

The first thing Michael Blodnick — the head of Glacier Bancorp Inc. in Kalispell, Mont. — looks at when considering buying another bank?

Joseph Stilwell is trying to gain seats on the mutual holding company's board with the solitary goal of getting the management team to sell.

First Citizens BancShares Inc. in Raleigh, N.C., reported only modest earnings growth in 2011 as income gains from failed-bank acquisitions were largely offset by higher loss provisions related to loans it inherited in those deals.

Cadence Bancorp's offer of 2.4 times tangible book value for Houston's Encore Bancshares has revived hopes that the M&A is coming back.

Regulators have terminated a consent order with Magyar Bancorp Inc.'s banking unit after the New Brunswick, N.J., company reduced its nonperforming assets and increased its capital levels.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has filed a lawsuit against former officers and directors of Broadway Bank in connection with the bank's collapse two years ago.

First Commonwealth Financial Corp. in Indiana, Pa., has named T. Michael Price as its president and chief executive.

Sierra Vista Bank in Folsom, Calif., is looking to start its fifth year with $6.5 million of new capital.

First Niagara Financial Group Inc. of Buffalo, N.Y., has shifted its small-business banking focus away from individual branches to a newly created business unit that will be solely dedicated to attracting and retaining small-business customers.

Tom Brouster, hired last week as a consultant to Reliance Bancshares, has a track record of turning around struggling banks. Brouster, who declined to outline a specific strategy for the St. Louis-area company, said in an interview Tuesday that selling is always an option in banking.

Esther George, the new president of the Kansas City Fed, discusses her fears on overburdening small banks, whether too big to fail is over, and her approach to regulation.

Roma Financial Corp. in Robbinsville, N.J., reported that its profit for 2011 rose almost 37% from a year earlier, to $7 million, because of loan growth and a lower loan-loss provision.

Shareholders of Mainline Bancorp Inc. in Ebensbug, Pa., have approved the company's sale to S&T Bancorp Inc.

Savannah Bancorp Inc. in Georgia said that one of its bank has entered into a consent order with regulators and now must work to maintain capital levels and reduce problem assets.

Encore Bancshares in Houston had a three-year plan for independence before an offer from Cadence Bancorp provided shareholders with the same value … immediately.

Legislation that would let banks appeal examination findings to an outside arbiter has now been introduced in both houses of Congress.